Automotive The Power of 12

"When I hear your 12 cylinders, I hear a burst of harmony no conductor could ever recreate"​

Conductor Herbert von Karajan to Enzo Ferrari​

The V12 engine​

12 Cylinders... what more do you need in this world? With perfect primary and secondary balance and six power strokes per revolution it has always been the epitome of refinement, luxury, performance and of course the magnificent engine sounds. An old-skool forum surely needs a thread filled with multiples of 12 cylinders!

The White Giant from Zuffenhausen​

I will kick it off with the Porsche 917. I recently bought the book on the Porsche 917 by Walter Naher. This book is such a good read, documenting the development of the 917 in great detail, almost from week to week, from 1968-1975. Many untold stories and a lot of technical information and drawings. Here's one photo showing the lineup of 25 "White Giants" for the FIA homologation.

The air-cooled 180 degree V12 engine is of course dominating the car. Weighing in at 260 kg it accounts for one third of the total weight of the car. Throughout the years it put out between 580 hp in the 4.5l naturally aspirated engine all the way up to 1100 hp for the Can-Am beast. All that in a car weighing 800 kg.

Oh that one makes my knees go weak. Many years ago I actually bought a cd in a small shop in Maranello, called "Mechanical Symphony Vol. 2". On that CD there was one "song" with the 412 and it was jawdropping to hear it the first time. It started at relatively low revs in 2nd-3rd gear coming out of the pits and going all the way to the rev-limiter. The way the sound escalated for every rpm is something I've never heard again. I played it over and over on the stereo! I think I'll fire it back up tonight and wake up the neighbors!

The Honda RA271 made its debut at the Nordschleife in 1964. The car was a development from the RA270 prototype and the design is heavily inspired by the successful small-capacity multi-cylinder engines used in Honda motorcycles,

For the 1.5 liter Formula 1 regulations, Honda designed an amazingly intricate unit. The V12 engine was placed transversely behind the driver with the engine-block, transmission and differential combined into a single aluminum casting.

The crankshaft made up a complicated item, using needle roller bearings for the crankshaft and with the power taken off a central spur gear to the 5-speed transmission.

The cylinder head was designed with two cams per head, 4 valve per cylinder making it a total of 48 tiny valves for this small 1.5 liter engine! Furthermore, steel torsion bars were used for the valve springs!

With tiny pistons, needle bearings and 4 valves per cylinder the engine was capable of 14000 rpm. For the 1965 season the RA272 was regarded as the most powerful engine on the grid with 230 bhp @ 13000 rpm.

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